Home investment in husband's human capital and the wife's decision to work

I use a home production model to show that wives of managerial husbands who invest in their husbands' careers are less likely to work. Positive assortative mating for work-related traits like education, ability and drive suggests the opposite effect on labor force participation. 1 examine time diary data from the United States in the mid 1970's, and find that wives of managers are more likely to work, but that increasing the wife's years of education reduces her probability of working. The latter finding shows that the investment in husband's human capital effect exists; the former finding shows that it is overwhelmed by the positive assortative mating effect. No such investment effect is found for wives of professional husbands, and negative assortative mating for work related characteristics seems to be present because such wives are less likely, overall, to work.I thank Andrea Beller, Robert Sandy, Martin Spechler and anonymous referees for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper, and Indiana University, Indianapolis for research support. Remaining errors are my responsibility.